Silicon carbide devices exist that are capable of operating under high pressure and temperature with extremely low loss. This is due to the use of a large diameter wafer (presently 4H-SiC with a diameter of up to 4 inches), the use of which was previously problematic as a result of the low channel mobility of a MOS interface. Among the SiC devices, a SiC-MOS device (MOSFET or IGBT) can be easily driven and simply replaced by currently available Si-IGBTs. Thus, it is considered as one of the most preferred switching devices, which have the power region of several kV or less.
Silicon carbide semiconductor devices are the only wide gap semiconductor device capable of generating silicon oxide by thermal oxidation, which has been an influential basis for asserting the advantages of the silicon carbide semiconductor device.